I am not sure what I am doing wrong, I have tried and failed the last couple of years. I have cooked several different flavors of snack sticks and when they are done cooking they taste all the same, a bland mild sausage.
We have cooked a sample in the microwave to make sure it is spiced well enough and it tastes great. We tried Willie’s snack sticks, Jalapeño, Habanero, Teriyaki etc and we get bland sticks at best.
We are cooking the sticks in an oven set at 200 degrees with the door slightly ajar until the sticks reach 160 degrees internal temp between 5 to 6 hours. We have also tried a lower temp (170) for about 3 hours reaching our target internal temp of 160 degrees. We take them out of the oven and right into an ice water bath. We do not experience any fat out and they look great, just not flavorful.
Where am I going wrong, any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

keend0 we used a 60/40 ratio venison/pork butt

Kentucky Fisherman yes everything is weighed out and double checked before mixing.